Warnings of rental rip-offs in tight property market in Perth

TIM PALMER: This is the time of year when many people look to make a change. But if that change involves a move interstate there are new dangers, and warnings that extra care is needed when seeking accommodation or rental properties online.

Unlucky bidders have found out only after they've forked over money for bond and advance rent.

David Weber reports from Perth.

DAVID WEBER: People moving to WA often want to have somewhere to go as soon as they arrive. This means they don't have the ability to check out a property in person.

The director of retail and services at Consumer Protection, David Hillyard, says fraud cases are on the rise.

DAVID HILLYARD: I guess as our rental market in Western Australia is getting tighter, and we've got more tenants looking for properties, so the scammers have recognised an opportunity to put false advertisements into the internet.

The scammers will actually go around the legitimate real estate agents' websites, so properties that are either for sale or for rent, and they'll lift the details of those properties, including the photographs, and they'll drop them into what we call the classifieds, so whether you're on Gumtree or eBay, those sorts of websites.

They'll often target, especially at this time of the year, university students. It's usually going to be targeted at just below market rent. You make contact, and immediately they start to I guess spin a yarn to you that's to try and get you hooked on this property and to start sending money.

DAVID WEBER: People from overseas, as well as people from interstate, who perhaps don't want to land here in Perth or WA without some kind of guaranteed place to stay - these people might be susceptible to it.

DAVID HILLYARD: They are our primary victims, especially at this time of the year, the change of school years. The property is occupied, it was never for rent, and it's in fact been a complete bogus approach from the people who've been running the scam.

They'll be asking you to do money transfers for the rent and for the bond direct to them and that's usually by way of a wire transfer, so a Western Union type transfer. We know that once funds are sent in that way, they're picked up at their source destination and you cannot recover them once they've gone through.

DAVID WEBER: So nobody gets their money back.

DAVID HILLYARD: No. Everyone becomes a victim that sends off funds.

DAVID WEBER: The department says people should work through housing offices at universities, or go through legitimate real estate agency websites.

It's something that Mark Delos Reyes knows after he was a victim of fraud in October. He was in Seattle when he used the net to find somewhere to live in Perth.

MARK DELOS REYES: I needed accommodation right away when I landed, so I went online and this one, you know, seemed the most legit I guess at the time. You know the person, and you know we were emailing back and forth. Yeah just went for it, with the payment, signed the lease and everything.

DAVID WEBER: How much money were you asked to forward and what were the reasons they gave you for asking for this money?

MARK DELOS REYES: They needed the first month's rent and a bond as well. So it was like $1200 total I gave her.

DAVID WEBER: You must have had a sinking feeling when you were standing outside waiting for someone to arrive with the keys.

MARK DELOS REYES: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

DAVID WEBER: The department of Consumer Protection says that in most cases, the funds are traced to Asian or African countries.

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